National Kids Bee--Second Essay

1. Many of the 293 words in Round Three repay a close look, and if we begin with ceremoniarius, we can see how way might lead to way even beyond the word. Of course we see the word "ceremony" in the word, and we know that it has something to do with it, but the definition of this word, first used in 1865 in English, is "An official who superintends the ceremonies and assists the ministers in a liturgical service." But the definition causes a bit of the problem. If you "superintend" the ceremonies, doesn't that mean you are in charge? How is it, then, that you "assist" the ministers? Well, the definition given at the Bee indicated that such an official works only in the Roman Catholic Church and is charged with the responsibility of making sure that the service is pulled off properly. Interestingly, the girl who missed the word is a Catholic school student, and neither she nor her principal had heard the word.

Well, interestingly enough, the clearest online statement of the roles of various church officials is in this 1927 Episcopal document. We have here the crucifer, the thurifer (bearer of the thurible or censer), the banner-bearer and, yes, the ceremoniarius. Here is what is said about him.

"The ceremoniarius must be a man with a clear head and presence of mind. He should be perfectly familiar with all the details of the duties of everybody taking part in the service of which he is in charge, from the celebrant to the boat boy."

Oops...As Robert Frost says, 'way leads to way.' So, I think we want to know who the boat boy is. When I first saw the phrase, I thought, for no special reason, about John Barth's book Giles Goat Boy. I won't go down that road, but I did check out what a boat boy was. He is, in short a thurifer's assistant. Here are a few lines about him. The "boat bearer carries the boat (a small metal container) which holds the supplies of incense." The thurifer then transfers the grains of incense into the red-hot charcoals of the thurible with a spoon. Everything is thus done decently and in order, and no one gets his hands burnt!

Then, when looking up a few usages of ceremoniarius, I came across this 1865 sentence in the OED: "The ceremoniarius should be vested in cassock and cotta." I had heard of a cassock, to be sure, but a cotta? A cotta is "the Surplice shortened, and with less ample sleeves." You can check out the difference between a cassock and a cotta by examining the photos on this site.

2. Now you see the joy, and frustration, of words. Many of them invite closer inspection, and they become the means by which new learning happens; your life may even change by studying words slowly. But, then again, you might have other things to do! Well, let's just do one more word here--gasconism. The word is trivially easy to spell, and we see that it comes from the region of Gascony in France. But Gascon, upon coming into English, meant "a boaster or braggart; from the reputation of the Gascons as a race for extreme boastfulness." This is the definition in the Century Dictionary from about 100 years ago; we see in the use of the word "race" a kind of throwback to the way people talked three or four generations ago. It makes you want to inquire about how it was that someone gave the Gascons the bad reputation to which the quotation points. Was it one person? One incident? The author of the Epistle to Titus quotes a common saying at the time, "All Cretans are liars"--but how did the story start that would lead to the statement that gasconism was "a spirit of boastfulness or vaunting"? Perhaps I will have to travel to SW France in the near future just to do a sociological experiment for myself on this question.

Conclusion

Well, time would fail me in this essay to deal with the words I was really planning to introduce: Sarsar, fettuccelle, costumbrista, tourlourou, and brodequin, but there is always tomorrow for this. I will end, however, by telling you that Sarsar is derived from the Arabic word carcar, meaning a cold wind. In quotations from the end of the 18th century it stands for the "Icy Wind of Death." For example, from 1786: "She..thus penetrated the very entrails of the earth, where breathes the Sansar (sic), or icy wind of death." I think you have to enter into this pre-romantic era Middle Eastern poetry to know the import/impact of this concept. This is enough to enjoy for one day.

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